GHR

I was taught about that headline in A-level English down here, safe to say it's gotten about a bit!

MK Dons for one are emptier (average league attendance this season is 8,261 in 30,500 seats; Rovers are 13,661 in 31,367); but yes I believe we are the 'emptiest' in the top two tiers. But yeah, £30 for what might be an earlier start than you'd like in December to go and sit in the likely freezing cold, all in the midst of a cost of living crisis is some commercial strategy...

Yeah there's no trains. I had similar coming back from Cardiff away - the best I could find is the X41 bus from outside Chorlton Street Coach Station to Accrington Bus Station, the 6/6a bus to Blackburn (edit - 7 or 7a coming back), then if you feel like it the 1 or 2 bus to Ewood. A day ticket is £12 I think. The X41 used to run direct to Blackburn but hasn't for a while now. You could also tram to Bury / bus to Rawtenstall then come across on the bus (I forget the number) but from memory that stops a little too early in the evening to do in reverse after the game.

Different scenario altogether what with the number of fans, policing, logistics and what have you involved, but I have always thought all three divisions of the National League's approach of playing a 'nearby' team on Boxing Day then having the reverse fixture on New Years Day is a nice touch. Nothing daft like Notts County v. Chesterfield, but this time for example you have Altrincham with Halifax and Southport v. Curzon Ashton and what have you. Allows easier and cheaper days out for all concerned and gives a little bit of intensity to the festive fixtures.

Might be a kiss of death if we play this at Coventry - aren't we presently the last team to play Bury at Gigg Lane too?!

I can't help but just want to say I own all three of the current books and they are superb. Well recommended even if you aren't one for Scottish football: they are well worth it for the photography and nostalgia alone!

Had to double check these as I was relatively young at the time but away at Man City and West Brom in the league in 05/06. Drew 0-0 and lost 2-0 respectively but I don't think we had a meaningful attack in either. Obviously neither have the gravitas of Millwall for Wembley or Spurs or Wigan in our last days in the PL but both were an awakening for younger me as to how, let's be honest, shit it can be on occasion.

This 1927 IPA Cardiff are selling on the concourse is absolute dynamite. I'll give it ten mins upstairs and if nothing's happening I'll come back down and just get back on this instead.

Off to Whitehaven v. Newcastle in the RFL Championship today, nothing at stake for either side but hoping for a decent game at what looks a good ground, and a couple of nice pubs in a town I never thought I'd visit. Off to a couple of games in the World Cup too I hope.

Might use my free Saturday to go to Wigan and scout out pubs for next time...

Indeed, rugby league appears to be going ahead tomorrow if not tonight (though there's only two games at professional level), as does professional ice hockey. All NI and most Scottish football now off, Wales yet to declare as far as I can see.

No age at all. RIP.

God this makes me feel old.

From my era, Sergio Peter, Sebastian Pelzer and David Yeldell.

Not exactly a new phenomenon either... Tony Adams and Ally McCoist also come to mind.

Tugay and Friedel were my heroes growing up, as far as football went anyway. Now I'm older I realise how lucky I was to grow up in that Souness-Hughes era. We might not have achieved the heights of the 90s but it was wonderful fun, nothing like welcoming Man United and Arsenal to Ewood and knowing you had a very fair chance of getting at least a point; seeing us lift the League Cup and make two FA Cup semis; watching the likes of Friedel, Neill, Emerton, Short, Todd, MGP, Savage, Tugay, Bentley, McCarthy, RSC every week...

Would agree with the Black Bull / Three B's. It also affords superb views across the town and surrounding hills!

Away at West Ham it is.

Stockport County?

His stepdad played for Bolton way back when.

The only thing worse than Sweet Caroline is goal music. The sound of 15,000 people spontaneously losing their mind is a million times better than some overplayed, copied, cliched noise being played over a PA. Do I daresay I'd do away with music at Ewood altogether aside from our take on Wild Rover between the teams walking out and kick off? And just to reiterate, Sweet Caroline is awful and stolen from another national team anyway. It's the kind of thing sung by your uncle after he's had ten pints at a wedding reception. I utterly hate how it is now so ingrained in elite level football in this country.

Lovely ground, was there for their game v. Dewsbury a couple of months ago. You can't beat the bowl shape with massive rakes of terracing. (And thanks for the Northern reference, I can't get into the silly nicknames most of them have now at all.)

7) I want to say is Hampden, used to hold 140,000 or more back in the day (bit more trivia - when Hampden was completed in 1903, the three largest football grounds in the world were in Glasgow. Hampden remained the world's largest until the Maracana opened some 50 years later.) 8) Queen of the South. Nice little town and ground 11) The typical answer is Arbroath's Gayfield, the closest in Europe I believe, but they're only semi-pro

Aye but most of them look terrible.

Did anyone really expect the magazine to last more than the bare minimum they could feasibly print it for? (As in, it was never going to work, not that the club set out deliberately.) I got the first edition as a one off, needless to say I was never tempted again! Speaking of programmes, I was at Bradford (Park Avenue) on Saturday, where it turns out they have a massive shed full of old programmes of all types for sale. I picked out about a dozen Rovers ones at random (50p each!) from the 60s through to the 00s. It was only when I got home that I realised one of them was from the 1987 Full Members' Cup Final!